t 


Sfl    bll 


GIFT   OF 


HIRTY-ONE  YEARS  OF 
CALIFORNIA 


A  SECULAR  DISCOURSE 


BY 


THE  REV.  HORATIO  STEBBINS,  D.  D. 

the  occasion  of  the  Thirty-first  Anniversary  of  his  Ministry  in  San  Francisco, 
SEPTEMBER  8,  1895 


CHANNING  PUBLICATIONS. 
X. 


PUBLISHED   BY  THE 

CHANNING  AUXILIARY  OF  THE  FIRST  UNITARIAN   CHURCH 
OF  SAN  FRANCISCO. 


1895- 


THIRTY-ONE  YEARS  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


BY  THE  REV.  HORATIO  STEBBINS,  D.  D. 


A  recent  writer  says  that  autobiography  has  a  flavor 
of  egotism,  inasmuch  as  it  implies  that  the  author 
must  esteem  himself  of  considerable  importance  to  him- 
self and  the  world  to  write  out  the  incidents  of  his  own 
life  and  experience,  as  if  any  one  beside  himself  cared 
anything  for  them,  or  could  be  profited  by  them.  Such 
a  criticism  is,  however,  a  little  acetic,  and  ignores  alto- 
gether that  fine  simplicity  of  mind  and  heart  with  which 
those  who  have  had  a  real  human  experience  may  record 
it,  as  a  contribution  to  the  current  wisdom  and  truth  of 
their  time.  Biography  too,  is,  the  literature  of  individual 
life;  and,  if  a  man  is  level-minded  enough  to  tell  his 
own  story,  as  moonlight  falls  on  a  placid  river,  he  may 
make  substantial  contributions  from  his  own  life  to  the 
life  of  his  time.  A  truly  fine  autobiography  is,  in  my 
opinion,  a  great  writing,  whether  it  be  in  the  allegoric 
style  of  John  Bunyan,  or  in  the  homespun  way  of  Ben- 
jamin Franklin,  or  the  simple,  brave  talk  of  General 
Grant.  We  get  introduced  to  individuals  so,  and  we  live 
with  them  a  while,  and  get  acquainted,  and  learn  more 
than  travel  can  teach. 

But  such  is  not  my  affair  this  morning.  I  have  little 
or  nothing  to  say  of  myself.  I  wish  only  to  say  how 
things  and  men  have  looked  to  me  as  I  have  passed 
through  the  scene  of  thirty  years  or  so,  and  to  give  a 

415832 


THIKTi'-()\E    YEARS    OF    CALIFORNIA. 


little  estimate,  —  I  will  not  call  it  a  judgment,  —  or  gen- 
eral result  of  experience. 

Let  me  glance  briefly  at  the  material  progress  of  Cali- 
fornia. I  offer  no  tabulation  of  property  or  of  products. 
I  wish  only  to  glance  at  a  general  fact.  The  discovery 
of  gold  gave  inspiration  to  the  pioneers,  and  it  seemed 
that  the  country  had  no  other  value  than  that  deposited 
in  the  mountains  or  along  river-beds.  The  land  was  dry 
and  hard,  and  the  climate  was  new  and  strange  to  Amer- 
icans. Few  attached  any  importance  to  the  agricultural 
value  of  the  country,  and  the  brilliancy  of  the  precious 
metals  obscured  every  other  interest  with  dazzling  light. 
Horace  Greeley  thought  the  country  was  only  for  min- 
ing, and  that  Marysville  would  be  the  centre  of  its  wealth. 
But  it  has  turned  out  that  the  agriculture  of  the  country 
is  rich  beyond  precedent,  so  that  a  farmer  at  the  annual 
national  thanksgiving-time  questions  whether  he  has  any 
cause  of  gratitude  in  having  more  than  he  can  sell.  This 
feature  of  the  country  has  played  a  very  important  part 
in  the  development  of  the  State;  and,  while  it  is  a  sur- 
prise, viewed  from  the  standpoint  of  the  miner  with  his 
pick  and  shovel,  it  has  been  a  disappointment  also  to  the 
farmer  from  the  standpoint  of  the  plow.  The  accounts 
of  wonderful  production  and  marvelous  wealth  per  acre 
had  the  effect,  at  one  time,  to  make  agriculture,  the  most 
conservative  of  all  human  industry,  highly  speculative 
and  dazzling.  The  truth  is,  that  agriculture,  lying  flat 
on  the  earth  as  it  does,  the  bottom  industry  of  society,  is 
a  very  sober  kind  of  business,  and  will  not  allow  flights 
of  fancy.  It  is  a  patient,  careful,  frugal  vocation,  wisely 
provided  in  the  education  of  the  world  for  the  training  of 
men  by  good  habits  of  industry  and  economy.  The  de- 
velopment of  machinery,  and  the  application  of  animal 


THIRTY-ONE    YEARS    OF    CALIFORNIA.  5 

or  steam  power  to  the  cultivation  of  the  soil,  has  had  the 
general  effect  —  temporarily,  we  may  believe, — to  demor- 
alize this  great  common  vocation.  It  does  very  little 
toward  "settling  up"  the  country,  or  establishing  society. 
It  does  not  cultivate  family  life,  and  it  makes  labor  fitful 
and  dissipated.  While  it  is  a  natural  and,  perhaps, 
necessary  result  of  what  may  be  called  the  application  of 
machinery  to  a  conservative  pursuit,  it  has  a  tendency  to 
correct  itself  by  over-production,  and  to  turn  labor  into 
other  channels.  It  is  true  that  fifteen  men  and  a  hun- 
dred horses,  with  machinery  to  match,  working  a  part  of 
the  year  on  two  or  three  thousand  acres  of  land,  do  not 
have  a  great  social  effect  in  establishing  communities  or 
increasing  the  populations  of  a  country,  but  they  are  bet- 
ter than  rabbits  or  coyotes. 

While  there  has  been  a  steady  development  of  agri- 
culture, and  a  marvelous  power  of  production,  it  is  fair 
to  say  that  the  expectations  of  ardent  minds,  in  regard  to 
what  is  called  the  development  of  the  State,  have  not 
been  fulfilled.  I  think  that  a  dispassionate,  judicial,  his- 
toric mind,  if  you  please,  will  confess  that  the  growth  of 
California  has  been  a  disappointment.  It  has  not  been 
as  great  as  we  expected;  certainly  not  as  great  as  we 
hoped.  Indeed,  I  think  this  may  be  said  of  the  whole 
western  coast,  though  the  causes  are  not  the  same  as  with 
us  here.  Twenty-five  years  ago,  men  who  were  as  sober 
as  the  rest  of  us  prophesied  that  there  would  be  five  mil- 
lions of  people  around  this  bay  in  a  quarter  of  a  century. 
After  the  opening  of  the  first  transcontinental  road,  it 
was  said  that  there  was  as  much  land  in  California,  in- 
cluding climate,  worth  one  hundred  dollars  an  acre  for 
production,  as  there  was  in  the  Republic.  And,  twenty 
years  ago,  it  was  thought  that  this  city  was  destined,  in 


6  THIRTY-ONE    YEARS   OF    CALIFORNIA. 

the  near  future,  to  be  the  richest  in  the  world!  So  we 
imagined,  and  so  we  talked. 

And  now  I  come  to  the  quick  and  nerve  of  life,  society, 
and  manners,  as  they  are  here.  Why  has  there  been  this 
over-expectation,  this  sanguine  hope,  this  innocent  cre- 
dulity in  regard  to  the  material  growth  of  the  State? 

I  said,  incidentally,  on  a  former  occasion,  that  no  just 
conception  of  society  here  could  be  formed  without  tak- 
ing into  view  the  fact  that,  historically,  the  State  is 
founded  on  the  presence  of  the  precious  metals.  It  has 
been  said  that  new  discoveries  of  gold  in  the  earth  have 
kept  pace  with  expanding  commerce  on  the  sea,  and  this 
has  been  regarded  as  one  of  the  tokens  of  Providence  in 
history.  But  not  the  discovery  of  gold  only  has  this 
providential  relation  to  the  wants  of  man  and  the  pro- 
gress of  the  world.  The  discovery  of  iron,  lead,  copper, 
and  tin  have  no  less,  but  far  greater,  influence  upon  the 
industrial  life  of  man,  and  are  much  more  common  in 
relation  to  his  wants  and  to  the  progress  of  the  world. 
But  gold  is  value  ready-made;  and  he  who  has  it,  by  a 
kind  of  moral  fiction,  is  rich.  Hence,  the  gold-passion, 
as  old  as  human  nature,  to  take  a  short  cut  to  wealth. 
Historically,  the  discovery  of  gold  on  these  shores  has 
been  a  great  good,  for  without  it  this  western  civilization 
had  not  been;  but,  individually  and  socially,  it  has  been 
attended  with  great  evils.  Let  no  vague  censures  be 
pronounced  on  the  past;  no  cheap  denunciation  of  those 
methods  of  history  by  which  God  causeth  the  wrath  of 
man  to  praise  Him,  and  the  last  of  it  he  restrains.  Ore- 
gon was  settled  before  California,  and  the  government 
paid  a  premium  on  marriage  to  hold  the  country.  New 
countries  are  settled  by  rude  methods,  and  one  of  the 
most  cheering  views  of  man's  estate  on  earth  is  that 


THIRTY-ONE    YEARS    OF    CALIFORNIA.  7 

order  and  law  and  social  beauty  and  refinement  have 
risen  from  beginnings  so  humble,  so  rude,  or  so  wicked. 
Nations,  those  great  divisions  of  the  human  family,  that 
seem  to  hold  in  their  grasp  the  fortunes  of  the  race,  are 
made  by  war.  The  arts  and  refinements  of  life  are 
attained  only  through  the  most  fearful  moral  and  physi- 
cal exposures  of  vast  multitudes  of  men.  What  an  army 
of  soldiers  and  sailors,  and  diggers  and  delvers,  and  ten- 
ders of  hell-fires  on  land  or  sea,  make  it  possible  for  us 
to  live  in  a  comfortable  house,  have  a  decent  breakfast, 
under  the  protection  of  laws  and  manners !  Whatever 
impression  these  things,  and  such  as  these,  may  make  on 
us  that  this  world  is  not  finished  yet,  they  are  so,  and 
have  been,  and  will  be. 

The  historic  fact  is,  that  the  presence  of  the  precious 
metals  in  the  earth  is  one  of  the  heaviest  moral  trials  to 
men  who  are  brought  into  close  contact  with  them.  The 
strange  mixture  of  chance  and  rapid  accumulation  unships 
the  mind  of  the  average  man  from  all  the  fastenings  that 
make  the  great  ethic  of  property  and  give  it  established 
relations  to  character.  The  mind  follows  a  will-o'-the- 
wisp,  or  becomes  itself  a  Jack-o'  lantern.  The  man  is 
intoxicated  with  the  notion  of  having  something  for 
nothing,  and  his  credulity  swallows  the  moon,  and  he 
floats  over  seas  from  whose  depths  he  hears  the  bells  of 
sunken  cities.  A  fascinating  contagion  sweeps  through 
society,  industry  is  swamped  in  speculation,  modest  fru- 
gality is  ashamed  in  the  presence  of  extravagance,  and 
sweet  benevolence  is  drowned  in  the  tempestuous  flood  of 
thoughtless  and  unprincipled  generosity.  Individuals 
here  and  there  may  go  untouched,  as  some  enchanted 
house  escapes  the  plague,  but  the  common  air  is  filled 
with  vapors.  This  spirit,  natural,  inevitable  as  human 


THIRTY-ONE    YEARS    OF    CALIFORNIA. 

character  is,  had  its  full  sway  here ;  and  it  is  one  of  the 
honors  of  American  society  that  here,  within  half  a  cen- 
tury, has  been  established  a  commonwealth,  with  institu- 
tions of  law,  learning,  and  religion,  that  promise  to  give 
rank  among  the  States  of  the  world. 

This  spirit  of  speculation  —  gold-passion,  if  you 
please, —  culminated  in  1875,  in  the  failure  of  the  Bank 
of  California.  The  restoration  of  that  institution  was 
the  beginning  of  a  new  era;  and,  since  then,  the  State, 
with  diminished  splendor  to  some  eyes,  but  with  steadier 
power  to  discerning  minds,  has  been  living  out  of  its 
past.  There  is  a  habit  of  complaint  among  us,  and  for- 
tune handles  some  very  rudely;  but  there  are  few 
countries  on  earth  where  industry  and  frugality  bring 
better  rewards.  The  State  is  still  new,  and  its  popula- 
tion is  small,  and  distances  are  great,  even  with  modern 
ways  of  travel.  But  if  we  inquire  into  the  facts  of  trans- 
portation and  production,  they  are  very  striking  and 
wonderful.  I  do  not  know  where,  on  any  continent,  or 
in  any  country  with  a  population  of  1,250,000  and  an 
area  of  160,000  square  miles,  there  are  such  facilities  for 
the  physical  wants  and  comforts  of  men.  The  climates, 
through  latitudes  and  longitudes  from  the  soft  south  to 
the  snowy  north,  from  seashore  to  mountain  range,  are 
friendly, —  too  friendly,  it  may  be,  to  challenge  man's 
courage  and  resistance.  To  what  extent  climate,  that 
powerful  factor  in  the  constitution  and  destiny  of  races, 
is  to  modify  our  modern  civilization  here,  it  is  impossible 
to  tell.  We  must  face  the  fact  that,  thus  far  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  world,  cold  weather  has  been  the  wise  step- 
mother of  men.  What  new  invention,  what  cosmopolitan 
art,  can  give  energy  to  lassitude,  will  to  indulgent  ease,  and 
economy  to  carelessness,  we  do  not  know.  The  base  line 


THIRTY-ONE    YEARS    OF    CALIFORNIA. 

of  material  progress  is  industry  and  economy.  This  ex- 
plains the  fact  that  a  people  with  a  stingy  soil  have  gathered 
more,  often,  than  those  where  prodigal  nature  has  strewn 
her  neglected  gifts.  These  are  encouraging  signs  of  increas- 
ing industry  and  economy,  though  we  still  affect  to  despise 
a  cent,  while  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States  can  count 
it  and  keep  it.  Let  us  remember,  when  we  see  in  pro- 
phetic vision  the  noble  future  before  us,  that  no  people  on 
earth  are  industrially  or  commercially  great  who  have 
not  abundant  room  in  their  pockets  for  a  cent,  and  time 
enough  to  count  it  before  they  let  it  go.  Laugh  at  it,  ye 
throng  of  fools,  turn  from  it,  ye  host  of  beggars:  econ- 
omy is  to  prosperity  and  honor  what  virtue  is  to  the  soul. 
It  may  have  a  rough  exterior,  it  may  not  be  in  the  latest 
fashion,  but  the  woodsman  who  lays  his  axe  at  the  root 
of  a  fire-scorched  tree  often  finds  that  it  is  sound  at  heart. 
One  more  word  in  this  line.  A  well  known  citizen 
said  some  years  ago  that  we  had  many  devices,  or 
schemes,  of  prosperity,  but  there  did  not  any  of  them 
hold  out.  I  once  talked  with  a  man  who  was  the  owner 
and  manager  of  one  of  the  finest  ranches  in  the  State^ 
Among  other  rich  products  the  most  beautiful  butter  was 
made  and  sold  at  ninety  cents  a  roll  of  two  pounds,  two 
ounces  short.  I  asked  him  how  long  this  was  going  to 
last.  He  replied  that  there  was  no  reason  why  it  should 
not  last  forever!  I  remonstrated  that  I  could  not  under- 
stand how  agriculture,  most  exposed  to  competition,  could 
sustain  such  prices.  He  did  not  agree  with  me.  I  was 
not  in  the  dairy  business  then,  nor  am  I  now.  I  do  not 
claim  to  have  any  knowledge  about  it.  Many  of  us 
remember  what  plans,  enterprises,  industries,  and  specu- 
lations have  been  devised  "  to  bring  us  out,"  and  set  the 
State  on  the  high\vay  of  prosperity.  We  ha\e  been  in  a 


10  THIRTY-ONE    YEARS   OF    CALIFORNIA. 

kind  of  experimental  stage,  trying  everything,  and  while 
so  many  things  have  failed,  come  to  an  end,  or  been  over- 
come, there  has  been  a  steady  progress.  The  country  was 
new  to  American  habits,  and  it  was  far  away.  We  have 
found  that  it  is  richly  fitted  for  many  things  of  which  we 
never  dreamed.  There  is  one  culture,  however,  the  influ- 
ence and  value  of  which  are  not  yet  decided.  I  mean  the 
cultivation  of  wines  and  brandies.  What  the  final  influ- 
ence and  result  will  be  depends  on  future  experience. 
Alcoholic  liquors  are  a  large  item  in  the  business  of  the 
world,  attended  with  many  dangers.  It  is  a  legitimate 
business,  like  the  manufacture  of  dynamite,  but  the 
handling  and  sale  should  be  conducted  in  a  manner  to 
protect  society  from  its  dangers.  I  do  not  notice  an 
extraordinary  number  of  drunkards,  but  there  is  an 
unusual  number  of  heavy  drinkers.  Thirty  years  ago, 
the  income  or  stamp  tax  on  whiskey  in  this  port 
yielded  a  greater  revenue  than  from  any  other  equal 
population  in  the  country.  In  former  years,  there  was  a 
man  here  who  kept  a  fashionable  saloon,  who  told  me 
that  he  had  customers  who  drank  eighteen  glasses  in 
a  day,  and  were  always  sober.  It  has  been  estimated  that 
in  the  future  development  of  our  State,  the  wine  product 
will  amount  to  one  hundred  million  dollars  annually.  If 
so,  that  industry  will  be  a  great  moral  and  social  danger, 
which  a  high  public  morality  will  ever  look  upon  with 
fear,  and  protect  itself,  as  best  it  can,  by  wise  and  just 
laws.  Thus  far,  the  American  and  the  Frenchman  do 
not  meet  on  equal  terms;  and  I  am  told  that  a  French- 
man, accustomed  to  wine  and  bread  in  his  native  vine- 
yards, when  transported  to  California,  is  not  content  with 
that  frugal  and  temperate  repast.  In  this  city,  among  a 
heterogeneous  population,  there  are  more  saloons,  per 


THIRTY-ONE    YEARS    OF   CALIFORNIA.  11 

capita,  than  in  any  other  city  in  the  Union;  and  no 
power  has  arisen  yet  to  restrain  a  business  which  proba- 
bly makes  more  money,  on  the  capital  invested,  than  any 
other  business,  and  costs  society  more  than  the  leather,  iron, 
and  flour  trade.  The  cultivation  of  wine  and  brandy  will  be 
second  only  to  the  influence  of  climate  on  the  destiny  of 
the  State.  But  it  may  be  reasonably  hoped  that  other 
industries,  not  less  important,  will  modify  that,  and  give 
it  a  secondary  importance  in  the  development  of  a  great 
commonwealth.  At  present,  we  are  quite  inclined  to  use 
the  name  of  the  State  as  an  adjective  in  the  superlative 
degree.  Time  will  chasten  our  judgment,  and  we  shall 
be  satisfied  with  an  honorable  place  among  the  States  of 
the  Republic. 

An  important  and  striking  influence  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  resources  of  the  State  is  the  rapid  increase 
of  the  means  of  communication.  Not  long  ago  San 
Francisco  was  twenty-four  days  from  New  York,  and 
passage  money  four  hundred  dollars.  The  time  has  been 
reduced  to  five  days  and  ten  hours,  and  the  traveling  fee 
to  less  than  one  hundred  dollars.  The  first  and  im- 
mediate influence  of  this  transcontinental  communi- 
cation was  to  introduce  some  modifications  of  business 
methods,  and  bring  affairs  to  commercial  equilibrium 
across  the  country.  The  commercial  spirit  of  business, 
long-minded,  and  laying  its  beams  afar,  came  in  col- 
lision with  the  provincial  spirit,  short-sighted,  and  near 
by.  The  theory  of  the  minimum  of  business  at  the 
maximum  of  profit  gradually  gave  way  to  the  world-view 
of  the  maximum  of  business  and  the  minimum  of  profit. 
To  some  this  change  seemed  like  the  coming  of  the  end 
of  the  world,  and  the  heavens  were  passing  away  with  a 
great  noise,  and  the  elements  were  melting  with  fervent 


12  THIRTY-ONE    YEARS    OF    CALIFORNIA. 

heat.  The  first  continental  road  was  a  violent  shock  to 
our  ways  of  business,  which  were  the  natural  outcome  of 
gold  mining  and  provincial  situation.  The  first  road 
was  the  beginning  of  a  new  age;  and,  like  all  new  periods, 
it  found  men  as  in  the  days  before  the  flood,  unaware  of 
what  was  going  on;  and  some  did  not  see  the  ark. 
Facility  of  communication  tends  to  the  economic  and 
commercial  equilibrium  of  society,  pools  the  world,  and 
democratises  nations.  Like  all  great  powers,  it  has  its 
drawbacks  here  and  there,  but,  on  the  whole,  and  through 
long  stretches,  it  is  the  way  of  progress,  the  way  of  his- 
tory. We  hailed  the  open  track  across  the  mountains, 
and  celebrated  it  with  noise  and  processions  and  banners. 
It  was  the  fulfillment  of  an  enterprise  that  men  had  de- 
rided, and  very  naturally  it  gave  pride  and  power  to  the 
projectors.  Men  in  such  position  are  rarely  as  wise  as 
they  think  they  are.  Such  is  the  infirmity  of  human 
character,  and  the  public  is  not  discriminating,  though 
rudely  just.  It  is  no  new  thing  for  popular  applause  to 
be  changed  to  complaint,  or  for  power  to  be  used  without 
due  sense  of  responsibility.  It  is  not  my  purpose  here  to 
measure  those  two  passions;  I  only  refer  to  them  as  a 
phase  of  society,  with  this  general  remark,  that  they  illus- 
trate the  spirit  of  business  on  the  lines  of  relentless  com- 
petition, that  furnish  no  outlet  to  the  fiery  discontent  that 
rages  beneath. 

But  there  is  another  influence  of  communication  be- 
side that  of  breaking  into  and  flooding  a  provincial  trade 
with  the  tides  of  commerce.  There  are  four  roads  across 
the  mountains  to  the  sea.  We  have  had  the  opinion  that 
this  port  and  city  were  the  centre  of  commercial  distrib- 
ution for  this  western  coast  from  British  Columbia  to 
Mexico,  and  inland  to  the  Sierras.  When  the  northern 


THIRTY-ONE    YEARS    OF    CALIFORNIA.  13 

road  was  opened  it  was  thought  that  it  would  have  no 
effect  on  the  trade  of  this  port  or  city.  The  practical  re- 
sult has  been  that  our  area  of  distribution  north  and 
south  has  been  reduced  from  about  two  thousand  miles, 
to  say  six  hundred  miles,  and  freights  by  overland  car- 
riage are  no  longer  brought  here  to  be  sent  back  into  the 
mountains,  but  are  distributed  along  the  road,  after  the 
fashion  of  country  pedlars  who  bring  their  goods  to  the 
door,  in  the  most  economic  way.  The  result  of  all  this 
is  to  make  this  a  retail  city  for  a  comparatively  small 
population  spread  over  twenty  to  fifty  thousand  square 
miles  or  so.  The  amount  of  goods  that  pass  in  transit 
does  not  contribute  much  to  our  wealth — nor  can  it  be 
reckoned  as  an  item  in  our  commerce. 

If  we  take  stock  now,  this  is  about  our  situation.  The 
gold-passion  is  exhausted  by  its  own  excesses.  The  min- 
ing interest,  a  business  uncertain  beyond  the  uncer- 
tainty of  business  in  general,  is,  and  is  destined  to  be,  an 
important  item  in  the  productive  industry  of  the  country. 
Agriculture  is  passing  through  its  wild  stage  of  cattle,  and 
thousand-acre  farming,  to  all  precious  fruits,  and  wine 
and  oil.  Manufactures  are  slowly  developed,  handi- 
capped yet  by  the  conditions  of  labor  and  transportation — 
while  commerce  sits  pensive  and  thoughtful,  her  hands 
folded  upon  her  lap,  as  she  looks  out  upon  the  vacant, 
glassy,  sea.  Our  situation  is  the  natural  and  inevitable 
outcome  of  our  history.  Far  away  on  a  lonely  shore,  be- 
fore the  bare  and  rugged  face  of  nature,  in  the  presence 
of  the  precious  metals  to  which  men  of  all  races  and 
tribes  flee  as  birds  of  prey  to  their  quarry,  there  has  been 
established  society,  without  a  parallel  in  the  history  of 
our  own  country  or  of  any  .other  country. 

We  have  come  at  length  to  a  period  in  our  history, 


14  THIRTY -ONE    YEARS    OF    CALIFORNIA. 

when,  chastened  by  experience,  more  moderate  views  suc- 
ceed extravagant  expectations.  Sober  men  feel  that  the 
development  and  growth  of  the  country  must  go  on  in 
something  like  historic  order  and  not  by  a  rush.  Though 
we  never  should  have  been  here,  and  the  sea  would  have 
dashed  idly  on  the  shore,  had  it  not  been  for  the  gold 
mines,  we  cannot  stay  on  that  account,  or  rear  a  powerful 
State.  We  have  had  many  symptoms  of  exhaustion, 
many  schemes  of  deliverance,  many  plans  of  prosperity. 
It  seems  to  me  that  while  we  accept  the  former  days,  and 
give  them  all  honor  for  the  part  they  acted  in  the  drama 
of  history,  we  must  go  on  out  of  that  past  into  the  sober 
industries  and  frugalities,  that  underlie  solid  wealth,  and 
make  competence  and  independence.  I  have  no  special 
wisdom  concerning  the  future.  The  only  thing  that  I  feel 
sure  of,  is  principle,  moral  principle.  There  are  those  who 
are  quite  sure  that  something  is  going  to  happen  before 
Ion?,  just  as  we  thought  that  the  overland  road  would 
make  us  blest,  and  fill  our  valleys  with  happy  popula- 
tions, or  as  the  rich  and  prosperous  dairyman  thought  he 
would  wet  his  steps  with  butter  at  ninety  cents  a  roll,  two 
ounces  short.  But  I  have  a  deep  conviction  that  no  such 
happening  is  going  to  be.  What  are  called  improve- 
ments will  go  on — the  great  canal  will  be  digged  for  the 
ships,  the  mountain  rivers  will  pour  their  floods  upon 
the  arid  soil,  and  tumbling  waters  will  transform  their 
power  to  electric  light  and  power— while  easy  transport 
from  the  valleys  to  the  sea,  and  from  the  sea  to  mountain 
heights,  will  give  the  people  change  of  air  and  scene, 
and  thus  minister  to  industry,  frugality  and  gentle  man- 
ners. The  material  development  of  the  country  will  be 
relatively  slow.  No  grand  enterprise  will  work  like  a 
magician's  spell,  to  leap  our  shadows,  or  take  a  short  cut 


THIRTY-ONE    YEARS    OF    CALIFORNIA.  15 

to  destiny.  The  tide  of  population  will  be  turned  to  this 
vacant  realm  when  it  is  shown  that  our  Unds  will  yield 
competence  and  comfort  to  small  owners,  of  good  habits 
and  little  money,  and  our  rich  products  can  find  the 
markets  of  the  world. 

When  I  look  upon  a  map  of  the  world,  or  on  a  globe 
projection  of  the  earth,  I  am  impressed  with  what 
seems  to  me  our  inevitable  destiny  and  the  part  our 
common  country  is  to  play  in  the  drama  of  history — 
I  mean  our  relation  to  the  Asiatic  races.  I  have 
always  been  of  opinion  that  the  development  of  this 
western  coast  of  the  Republic  was  closely  allied  to  the 
awakening  of  the  sleepy  Orient,  and  modern  years  have 
strengthened  my  conviction.  It  is  less  than  half  a 
century  since  the  guns  of  England  made  the  first  breach 
in  the  Chinese  wall.  That  was  the  proclamation  by  the 
race  to  which  has  been  committed  the  highest  civilization 
of  mankind,  that  no  nation  can  shut  itself  up  from  the 
world.  One-third  of  the  human  race  hitherto  withdrawn 
from  the  communion  of  nations  and  men,  have  joined 
the  human  family.  Can  it  be  that  we  here  are  to  have 
no  part  in  this  great  action?  I  cannot  conceive  it !  I  do 
not  understand  history  so.  I  cannot  lift  the  curtain  that 
hides  the  future,  but  as  the  past  bears  the  signals  of  a 
guiding  providence,  so  the  present  flings  out  banners  of 
the  advancing  God ! 

I  have  thus  dwelt,  too  long,  it  may  be,  on  what  are 
called  the  material  conditions,  which  were  the  beginning  of 
society  here.  No  just  estimate  of  this  western  country 
can  be  given  without  taking  inventory  of  the  motives  that 
inspired  its  first  settlement,  and  of  the  great  ground 
influences  that  gave  it  security.  Those  motives  and 
influences,  speaking  broadly  and  historically,  are  the 


16  THIRTY-ONE   YEARS    OF    CALIFORNIA. 

passion,  for  gold,  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
and  Chinese  labor.  Without  the  first,  the  country  would 
not  have  been  settled;  without  the  second,  it  would  have 
been  a  little  fighting-cock  government  called  a  Pacific 
Republic;  without  the  latter,  there  would  have  been  no 
efficient  working  class. 

And  now  I  pass  swiftly  to  the  people  themselves:  the 
growth  of  society,  opinion,  education,  and  religion.  Let 
us  not  boast,  either  because  we  were  born  here,  or  be- 
cause we  carne  here  of  our  own  will.  Neither  the  coming 
or  the  being  born  is  good  ground  of  self-adulation.  The 
early  men  of  California  were  about  the  average  men  of 
mankind  that  have  the  traditions  of  law  and  order.  They 
were  subject  to  many  vicissitudes  and  hardships,  the 
will-o'-the-wisps  of  fortune,  and  the  trials  of  dazzling 
success  followed  often  by  swift  disappointment,  such  as 
takes  the  temper  out  of  human  steel.  Their  bones  lie 
in  many  a  mountain  and  valley  grave,  nor  wind,  nor 
sun,  nor  flowers  of  spring  know  their  nameless  rest. 
Thoughtful  history  alone  drops  a  tear,  and  lifts  up  her 
onward  song,  "  God  having  provided  some  better  things 
for  us,  that  they  without  us  should  not  be  made  perfect." 

Is  there  a  "  steady  gain  of  man  ?  "  Is  society  more 
gentle  and  noble  in  manners  and  opinion  ?  Is  there  a 
fresh  flavor  of  uprightness  and  honor,  wafted  like  iodyns 
from  the  sea,  amid  the  bad  odors  of  public  morals  ?  Are 
there  any  summits  to  which  we  look  up  as  to  a  brighter 
and  purer  air  ?  The  plane  of  humanity  at  large  is  public 
opinion  —  always  low  compared  with  a  noble  individual 
standard  —  and  dependent  on  higher  minds  to  lead  it 
forward  to  higher  fields.  In  a  country  like  ours,  the 
press  is  a  tolerably  true  gauge  of  the  average  intelligence, 
refinement,  and  morals  of  society.  A  journalist,  of  all 


THIRTY-ONE    YEARS    OF    CALIFOBNIA.  17 

men,  adapts  his  work  to  society  as  it  is,  rather-  than  to 
society  as  it  ought  to  be.  He  gives  what  is  most  wished 
for,  and  what  is  most  readily  paid  for.  Thus,  the 
stranger,  the  man  of  cosmopolitan  mind,  forms  his 
opinion  of  the  character  and  manners  of  the  people 
as  he  reads  the  morning  papers  at  his  breakfast- 
table.  The  press  is  often  careless  of  the  truth,  sometimes 
vicious,  and  often  honorable.  It  is  on  the  whole  a  fair 
reflection  of  society  as  it  is.  If  not  as  ably  conducted 
here  as  in  former  years,  it  is  less  bold  and  less  wicked. 
The  taste  for  the  sensational,  the  horrid,  and  the  crim- 
inal is  very  striking,  and  out  of  proportion  with  freedom 
or  public  duty.  We  have  in  this  city  and  State  a  bad 
reputation  for  crimes  of  violence  and  passion  —  the  list 
is  appalling.  But  I  am  confident  that  the  wrorking  up 
and  detail  of  wickedness  in  the  press,  while  in  no  sense 
required  by  public  duty,  does  much  to  increase  the  im- 
pression of  immorality  and  crime.  The  press  also  too 
often  takes  up  the  business  of  the  court,  and  tries  the 
case  by  a  public  discussion,  that  has  no  judicial  mind, 
and  no  evidence  that  would  be  admitted  in  an  honorable 
and  just  tribunal.  The  press  is  too  exclusively  given  to 
making  money  to  be  truly  high-minded.  I  do  not  say  that 
it  ought  not  to  make  money,  but  when  money-making 
is  the  chief  or  only  object,  it  relinquishes  the  high  trust 
of  educating  the  public  mind,  and  guiding  public  opin- 
ion, and  becomes  the  retailer  of  small  gossip,  and  the 
scavanger  of  social  scandal.  A  personal  incident  hap- 
pened to  me  thirty  years  ago.  Will  you  pardon  my 
rudeness  ?  It  is  a  part  of  the  scene.  A  manager  of 
a  paper  devoted  some  time  and  space  to  vituperation  and 
abuse  of  me.  On  a  day  I  was  introduced  to  him.  I  said 
to  him:  And  you  are  the  man  that  has  spent  so  much 


18  THIRTY-ONE    YEARS    OF    CALIFORNIA. 

time  on  me!  You  are  as  mild  a  mannered  man  as  ever 
scuttled  a  ship!  But  what  is  your  idea  of  journalism? 
To  which  he  replied:  "  Steaks  from  the  golden  calf"  !  I 
answered:  When  you  come  to  the  gallows  I  will  be  happy 
to  be  with  you  in  your  last  moments.  He  treated  me  very 
politely  ever  after. 

But  let  us  remember,  there  are  two  sides  to  this, 
as  there  are  to  some  other  things.  The  press  here 
reflects  the  public;  the  public  makes  it,  and  we  pay  for 
it.  The  press  is  the  mirror  of  society,  and  if  we  do^not 
like  the  look,  we  must  improve  our  figures  and  complex- 
ion. It  is  the  fashion  to  run  down  society,  and  to  shift 
our  responsibility  as  good  citizens  onto  the  public  or  the 
press.  And  we  hear  society  abused,  and  this  city  black- 
guarded as  the  worst  and  wickedest  city.  That  public 
opinion  is  low  there  can  be  no  doubt;  that  there  is  much 
violence  and  crime  is  appallingly  apparent;  that  there 
are  dens  of  drink  and  lust,  and  loud  manners,  and  vulgar 
wealth,  is  manifest  to  every  observer.  While  to  one  of 
misanthropic  temper  or  provincial  experience  the  city 
seems  a  steaming  heap  of  moral  compost. 

But  any  such  view  is  quite  inadequate.  There  is  noth- 
ing here  to  prevent  any  man  from  living  nobly  in  honor 
and  virtue,  and  there  are  here  as  good-natured  people  as 
are  on  the  earth.  To  the  profound  observer,  human 
excellence  is  not  on  the  surface  of  the  world,  nor  is  it 
most  noisy.  It  is  a  silent  power,  like  the  sun,  or  like  the 
seed  cast  upon  the  earth — it  swells  and  grows,  and  buds, 
and  casts  off  its  husks,  rises  toward  the  day  and  revels  in 
the  light. 

One  of  the  most  striking  things  in  society  here  is  the 
provision  that  has  been  made  by  public  care  or  private 
gift  for  education.  The  common  school  has  become  a 


THIRTY-ONE    YEARS    OF    CALIFORNIA.  19 

part  of  the  common  understanding  of  American  society; 
and  a  free  state  without  it  would  be  a  kind  of  political 
monster.  The  great  impulse  that  has  been  given  to  edu- 
cation during  the  last  thirty  years,  the  enlargement  of  the 
area  of  human  knowledge,  the  extension  of  man's  spirit- 
ual power  over  nature,  and  the  idea  of  law  as  cause  and 
effect,  have  opened  new  paths  of  thought,  and  new  fields 
of  action.  A  higher  intelligence  is  required  for  the  com- 
mon arts  and  industries  of  life,  and  the  expansion  of 
studies  to  the  dignity  of  something  like  liberal  arts,  is 
the  characteristic  of  our  time.  I  believe  that,  according 
to  population  and  period  of  political  organization,  no 
State  in  the  Union  has  richer  endowments  than  Califor- 
nia for  the  pursuit  of  studies,  either  beyond  the  common 
school  age,  or  not  included  in  the  common  school  course. 
The  establishment  of  the  University  of  California  is  one  of 
the  important  events  of  the  last  quarter  of  a  century.  The 
more  recent  establishment  of  Stanford  University,  by  pri- 
vate endowment,  is  an  illustrious  instance  of  far-seeing 
public  spirit,  to  be  perpetuated  in  a  great  and  powerful 
institution.  These  two  institutions,  at  no  remote  day,  will 
have  a  resident  pupilage  of  ten  thousand  students.  Be- 
sides these,  the  Cogswell,  Lick  and  Wilmerding  Technical 
Schools,  are  creations  of  opportunity  and  influence  that 
will  be  profoundly  felt  in  their  effect  on  individual 
lives,  and  on  the  arts  and  industries  of  society.  The 
remedy  for  the  ills  and  wrongs  we  suffer  is  education  in 
that  large  sense  that  includes  the  moral  and  intellectual 
nature  of  man,  and  relies  on  the  evolution  of  the  individ- 
ual for  the  renovation  of  society.  And  this  brings  me  to 
my  last  word,  religion. 

About  one- fourth  of  the  people  of  California  belong  to 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church.    They  are  not  devotees,  but 


20  THIRTY-ONE    YEARS    OF    CALIFORNIA. 

are  bound  by  tradition  to  that  division  of  Christendom. 
The  rest  of  the  population  are  divided  among  the  different 
sects  of  Protestanism,  and  that  large  class  who,  without 
special  religious  affinities,  have  the  natural  moral  and 
religious  instincts  of  humanity.  One  of  the  common 
mistakes  in  regard  to  the  influence  of  religion,  and  of 
religious  institutions,  is,  that  there  is  but  a  portion  of  the 
people  who  have  any  active  interest  in  religion  or  the 
Church.  Perhaps  the  true  test  of  the  importance  and 
value  of  religious  institutions  would  be  to  abolish  them 
altogether.  Imagine  if  you  can  a  city,  a  State,  or  a 
nation  in  which  there  is  no  expression  of  religious  senti- 
ment, no  prayer  offered,  no  teaching  given,  no  song,  no 
counsel  of  sympathy,  trust,  or  hope.  To  imagine  such  a 
condition,  pictures  society  bereft  of  its  loveliest  senti- 
ments, the  individual  as  merely  one  of  the  animal  crea- 
tion, and  the  grave  a  pit.  The  primal  interest  of  re- 
ligion is  with  the  individual,  through  the  inspiring  power 
of  personality.  It  is  forever,  the  "  fifty  righteous  in  the 
city  "  that  saves  the  city.  Let  all  secular  movements  go 
on,  to  relieve  the  stress  of  circumstances;  the  real  source 
of  energy  is  found  in  personal  character,  in  the  actual 
excellence  and  virtue  that  radiate  from  high  and  pure 
lives.  No  more  vague  and  senseless  notion  ever  possessed 
an  honest  but  ignorant  mind  than  the  notion  that  the 
machinery  of  things  will  do  the  world's  noblest  work. 
All  excellence,  all  renovating  powers  are  finally  vested 
in  persons.  And  there  can  be  nothing  in  a  nation  or  a 
State  or  a  city,  however  exalted  its  aims,  or  however  per- 
fectly organized,  which  is  not  in  the  persons  composing 
the  city,  the  State,  or  the  nation.  An  ultimate  standard 
of  worth  is  an  ideal  of  personal  worth.  All  our  inspira- 
tions, all  our  visions  of  eternal  beauty  are  visions,  re- 


THIRTY-ONE    YEARS    OF    CALIFORNIA.  21 

membered  glances  of  persons,  or  some  ineffable  glory  of 
Him,  all  good.  To  speak  of  any  progress  or  improve- 
ment or  development  of  a  nation,  or  society,  or  mankind, 
except  as  relative  to  some  greater  worth  of  persons,  is  to 
use  words  without  meaning. 

This  eternal  moral  and  spiritual  fact  is  the  basis  of 
religion,  and  of  institutions  for  worship,  prayer,  and 
teaching.  Man's  nature  overlaps  this  outward  scenery  of 
life  and  experience,  and  there  are  capacities  in  the  hu- 
man spirit  not  realizable  in  any  conditions  that  we  can 
conceive  on  earth.  Our  faith  in  that  infinite  Person,  like 
ourselves,  though  infinitely  above  us,  is  justified  by 
gleams  of  suggestion  that  a  life  lived  here  under  condi- 
tions of  limitation  that  thwart  its  full  development,  shall 
be  continued  in  a  society  where  the  complete  measure  of 
our  capacities  shall  be  attained. 

To  this  end  is  religion  and  its  institutions  —  to  set  in 
operation  moral  agencies,  not  through  the  impersonal 
machinery  of  society,  but  by  the  presence  and  contact  of 
good  men  and  good  women  in  the  city,  the  State,  or 
nation. 

To  this  end  every  true  teacher  and  preacher  of  religion 
is  born,  and  to  this  end  he  conies  into  the  world:  to  be 
the  interpreter  of  human  life  in  its  sublime  relations  and 
terrible  glories.  This  is  my  thought,  my  view,  rny  con- 
victions. How  feebly  I  have  filled  it  out  in  these  years 
of  the  lifetime  of  a  generation,  I  know,  and  God  knows. 
But  in  no  folly  of  self-adulation,  but  in  deep  and  tender 
humility,  this  has  been  my  aim;  and  my  honor  and 
respect  for  you  are  that  you  have  sustained  me  in  it,  by 
your  steadfast  hearts  and  by  your  vision  in  the  mount.  I 
am  and  have  been  among  you  a  much  employed  man.  I 
have  not  withheld  my  hand  or  my  heart  as  a  minister,  a 


22  THIRTY-ONE    YEARS    OF    CALIFORNIA. 

man  or  a  citizen  from  any  human  interest,  within  the 
reach  of  limited  capacity  and  prescribed  duty.  And  my 
proud  humility  and  gratitude  are,  under  God,  that  men 
and  women  from  every  condition  and  circumstance  of  life 
have  come  to  me  simply  because  they  thought  I  was  hu- 
man. If  I  could  call  the  roll  of  those  here  or  there  or 
beyond,  they  would  answer  from  near  and  far.  Pardon 
this  allusion  to  myself  that  is  rather  an  expression  of  my 
gratitude  than  my  pride.  If  life  and  strength  are  given, 
I  may  render  you  better  service  yet,  the  riper  fruits  of  ex- 
perience, some  clearer  vision  of  God. 

Now,  unto  him  who  is  able  to  do  exceeding  abundantly, 
above  all  that  we  ask  or  think,  according  to  the  power 
that  worketh  in  us,  unto  him,  be  glory  throughout  all 
ages,  world  without  end — Amen. 


THIS 


TB.IO  x>v       sTAl£p*i1'  c 


CaylordBros 

Makers 

Syracuse,  N.  Y. 
PAT.  JAN.  21,  1908 


..U..C.'  BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


C0312535M2 


415832 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


, 


